Posts from May 2012

Thursday, 31 May 2012

We’re all very excited that Open Mike Eagle is going to be releasing a new album called 4NML HSPTL at the end of June. To whet the appetite, Mike has slowly been releasing preview tracks from the album. First he released “Universe Man (feat Serengeti),” which quotes a They Might Be Giants song:

Wednesday, 30 May 2012

Hello! And welcome to my first-ever installment in my new “Vidreoviews” feature here on thisischris.com. I think once a week I’m going to do a round-up of (very) quick reviews of all the movies that I saw on DVD/Blu-Ray/OnDemand/Netflix/Streaming. Probably not stuff that was edited for TV and had commercials spliced in.

For my first installment: Mission:Impossible – Ghost Protocol. I liked it quite a bit. Brad Bird (of Iron Giant and The Incredibles fame) is a nimble, exciting director. The action sequences are tense and (most importantly) crystal-clear; you can tell exactly where everything is in relationship to everything else at all times. Excitement isn’t artificially generated by quick cuts and crazy angles. The excitement is inherent in the action, and the camera only serves to enhance the experience, not make it confusing and disjointed. There are some great spy-movie twists to the script (especially some revelations involving Jeremy Renner’s character). There were a couple of instances, though, where it seemed beyond suspension-of-disbelief levels that nobody saw what the M:I team were doing in public spaces. Seriously, there were NOBODY behind ANY of those windows that Hunt climbs past? And NOBODY in the ENTIRE CITY OF DUBAI was looking at that building during the several minutes that he was out there? And especially when broken glass (among other things) started falling? And there were no security guards, customers, or even random pedestrian observers at the automated parking garage? Stretching it quite a bit, folks. Still, quibbles. It’s a great movie, and my favorite M:I other than Brian DePalma’s original.

Tuesday, 29 May 2012

Much of Saturday needed to be spent doing yardwork, seeing as how the yard was getting a li’l bit outta control:

Before (Left) & After (Right)

It’s coming along much better now, though! Soon it will actually be a nice place in which to hang out.

My front yard, however, I think is just a lost cause. It’s so, so, so gross. Just take a look at this:

GROSS!

GROSS! Ugh.

Anyway, there were also a couple of barbecues to attend. One on Saturday afternoon, which I had to leave early to go down to Fools Play and perform a very fun show that was attended also by the Yellow Fool, in which we all got to play a bunch of our recurring characters. I always enjoy Character Nights at Fools Play.

Carrie and a couple friends, meanwhile, left the barbecue and headed down to Wingman Brewers, which is a young local brewery that just opened a tiny taproom in Tacoma near the Dome. They were having a really cool “Made In Tacoma” event where they invited some other local businesses down and had a little fair of a sort: Madrona Coffee (Wingman has a beer with this coffee in it), 21 Cellars winery, Barrel No.51 BBQ Truck, and Backcountry Creamery cheeses. Much fun was had.

The next barbecue involved the setting up of a net for the playing of the Two-Sticks, the best possible net game ever:

Two-Sticks Net Ready to Go! (No, that's not my backyard)

Monday was my real day off; no plans at all (except for a couple of quick chores and a trip to Trader Joe’s). So it was supposed to be my day to do all sorts of creative stuff: blog, write, compose chiptunes, etc. And it all fizzled. I was completely uninspired, and everything I started just seemed like dreck to me. Bleah. So instead of getting anything important done I went to a Red Box and rented Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, which is really excellent.

I think I’m going to start a new series on this website where I quickly review movies that I see at home (DVD, OnDemand, Streaming, etc.). It won’t be its own section like my Movie Reviews; it’ll just be it’s own Category like my Great Ideas on the Internets Category. I just can’t figure out what to call it; I want it to be some horrible pun that somehow combines the idea of reviewing movies I’ve only seen on video/DVD/Streaming in my own home. Something awful like “Vidreoviews.” Hold on… there, I just did a Google Search for Vidreoviews and it didn’t come up with anything! IT’S MINE NOW, SUCKAS! BAM!

KSUB has a really neat setup. Once you get into the building (which can be an adventure in itself seeing as how many of the doors are locked after a certain time of day, and only students can open them) and go down into the basement of the residence hall, you’ll find a decent-sized room full of comfy couches on which you can sit. They all face one end of the room, and that’s where the music magic happens.

Julia Massey & The Five Finger Discount

The Jesus Rehab

It was a great show from both groups, and props as always to Dom who is the drummer for both bands and therefore had to play the entire two+ hours.

Nope, just the same general amount of visitors that I would normally get on a Friday before a holiday weekend (i.e., not very many).

Anyhoo, thanks to JM+FFD & TJR for putting on a rocking good show, and thanks to KSUB for hosting it and letting us all come and watch. And everyone should, of course, buy the latest albums from JM+FFD & TJR:

Sunday, 27 May 2012

This is Memorial Day weekend, so I know a lot of you are going to go to some expansive area of grass, be it a backyard or a park, and do some barbecuing. Well, you know what else is fun to do in expansive areas of grass like that?

Play the best-ever-possible Memorial Day Weekend game: The infamous badminton variant known as “Two-Sticks.”

Because Two Sticks are Better Than One

Two-Sticks is a game that several of my friends and family and I invented many, many, many years ago. It involves teams of two, and each person playing starts with TWO badminton racquets, hence the name of the game.

I highly suggest you all play as many rounds of Two-Sticks this weekend as you possibly can. I wrote all the rules out in an article a while back, which I link to now:

Prom Queen is one of Leeni‘s side projects. It’s got a creepy 60s-ish mellow vibe, like something you’d listen to in the dark, eating a cheeseburger and drinking a milkshake while wearing a circle skirt (if you’re a girl).

Robb Benson is an uber-talented Seattle musician who has been in a half-dozen bands in the last 10 years. We saw him perform live once in 2000, and have kinda picked up some songs by him here and there. We recently re-discovered him via The Glass Notes and now are totally stoked to go see him play sometime soon.

By the time you read this I will have most likely gotten some of these. So, y’know, there’s that.

Tuesday, 22 May 2012

Hey, folks, it’s getting to be that time of year again. The weather should be clearing up soon, and that means that it’s time for Carrie & I to go shopping at garage sales.

North Tacoma is a great place for garage sales, and generally we do pretty good at them, too. But there is always room for improvement. So please, everyone who is planning on having a garage sale, read my article Proper Garage Sale Etiquette.

It has some great advice, especially for how to properly put up signage for your garage sale (my #1 complaint about garage sales is how crappy the signage often is for them).